This is a recipe that I didn’t prepare since a while, don’t ask me why because I used to love it 🙂

It’s a simple recipe, with ingredients which are very common in Italian recipes, and they are the ingredients used to top a good pizza, that’s why it has this name.

What makes it different than a normal pasta? Well, the mozzarella can melt better in the oven, and I love that almost crunchy texture that gets the pasta on the top 🙂

Let’s see how to make it.

 

INGREDIENTS (2 people):

• 200 g short pasta (I used rigatoni, but also penne are fine)
• 150-200 g of a good mozzarella (I used buffalo mozzarella, but also cow is fine)
• 3-4 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 350-400 ml of tomato sauce (or fresh tomatoes in the good season)
• 1 clove of garlic
• oregano
• extra virgin olive oil
• fresh basil leaves
• breadcrumbs
• salt

 

1. First of all start to prepare the tomato sauce, it has to be thick otherwise you’ll have too much liquid in the end. So take a pan, heat 3-4 spoons of extra virgin olive oil, add the garlic and then the tomato sauce. Add also the oregano and the basil leaves just in the end. Season with salt. Let it simmer until thick, 25-30 minutes. Remove the garlic after a while. If you use a buffalo mozzarella I suggest you also to cut it few hours before and let it drain in the fridge so it will not release its liquids in the pan.
2. Take a pot and when the water (salted) is boiling add the pasta. Cook it very “al dente” (we have to bake it too).
3. When the pasta is ready drain it and put it in the pan with the sauce. Mix it and add the mozzarella, which you have cut in smaller cubes.
4. Now take an oven pan, spread some oil on the bottom, add a thin layer of breadcrumbs on the bottom and on the sides, drop the pasta inside and sprinkle the grated Parmigiano Reggiano on the top.
5. Bake at 180-190 °C, fan-assisted mode, for about 15-20 minutes, until the pasta on the top makes some nice crust.
6. Serve it, garnish with some fresh basil and enjoy 🙂

 

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Products used in this recipe:

Pasta: Rigatoni from Pastificio Gentile

Tomato sauce: homemade

Mozzarella: Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP

Basil and oregano: from our garden

Extra virgin olive oil: as always, the one produced by my father with olives from his field by lake Iseo (Italy)

Parmigiano Reggiano: 24 months aged.